With the unlock of ‘Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey,’ documentaries about cults are again in type. Here are seven of the craziest ones on Netflix.

Jamie Lerner - Author

Between true crime podcasts and the new fad of reenactments like The Dropout and The Shrink Next Door, something that will reputedly by no means go out of style is the cult documentary. People are often interested by the whole thing having to do with cults, from how the chief came to power to how on a regular basis folks like us were given sucked into it.

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As cult knowledgeable Rachel Bernstein reminds us, “No one joins a cult, right? I bear in mind a story from someone who had gotten involved in a group who were there for many years, and he mentioned ‘If best they'd advised me what it used to be going to be, of direction I'd’ve stated no.’” Yet, we discover ourselves sucked into the cult of Netflix documentaries, watching horrific leaders manipulate the plenty for our leisure. So listed below are seven of the craziest cult documentaries on Netflix.

‘Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey’ (2022)

The most recent documentary, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is the latest cult saga to seize our minds. It chronicles Warren Jeffs’ rise as the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It’s an extremist model of Mormonism during which Warren pressured his male followers to marry a couple of girls, some as young as 8 years previous. His followers were (and are) so religious that when he went to prison, his power expanded.

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‘Wild Wild Country’ (2017)

Perhaps the maximum well known of the Netflix cult documentaries, Wild Wild Country took the global by means of typhoon when we discovered about arguable Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his second-in-command Ma Anand Sheela. They constructed their own utopia in Wasco County, Oregon, which resulted in the United States’s first bioterror assault, plus a major case of illegal wiretapping. It’s fraught with cult dynamics, lawbreaking, and a look at American political culture.

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‘One of Us’ (2017)

Another 2017 cult documentary, One of Us tells the tale of 3 Hasidic Jews who tried to leave their Orthodox neighborhood. While Orthodox Judaism is not a cult in itself, its ideology can very easily border Bernstein’s definition of a cult. “It’s usually defined as a brand new spiritual movement or a sect, however I care much less about the trust system,” she defined.

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“It’s about the nature of the relationship: the energy differential between the chief and the follower, the quantity of manipulation that exists in that dating, and … in protecting people there by means of making them really feel afraid of the world.” Many Hasidic communities are avoided the out of doors international and incessantly take benefit of the girls who grew up in the group. One of Us dives into the domestic and childhood sexual abuse some of the members faced as they get away the “group.”

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‘The Family’ (2019)

If this identify doesn’t sound like a cult documentary, what does? The Family examines a conservative Christian group called The Family or The Fellowship that had a hold in Washington, D.C. The Fellowship contributors had been all white males who believed that God selected them as leaders, who then infiltrated American politics to hold out their activity of international conquest. The documentary alleges that even Donald Trump was section of their plan.

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‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’ (2019)

The 2019 documentary movie, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator dives into the rise and fall of Bikram Choudhury, the founder of a mode of yoga known as Bikram yoga. As many yogis know, while yoga itself isn’t a cult, it has led to many cult-like buildings, similar to Yoga to the People. Choudhury would reel his “followers,” devout yoga lecturers who truly believed in the teaching, into twice-a-year instructor trainings.

The film contains first hand accounts of those who had been financially, sexually, and emotionally manipulated through Choudhury, now regarded as a criminal narcissist.

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‘John of God: The Crimes of a Spiritual Leader’ (2021)

This cult documentary may be lesser recognized, however John of God: The Crimes of a Spiritual Leader might be the most disturbing. João Teixeira’s “cult” wasn’t just a team of fans dwelling in combination per say, but it surely was complete of 1000's of people who believed he could truly heal them.

Teixeira was once a faith healer in Brazil who saw over 10,000 sufferers a week, and over 300 of them, some underage, have come forward with sexual abuse accusations. The documentary features the sufferers telling their harrowing tales. This isn't one to watch with a susceptible stomach.

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‘A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad’ (2021)

This miniseries documentary chronicles an abusive cult led through a German fugitive pressured out of the nation for molesting young boys. A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad introduces viewers to Paul Schäfer, who fled Germany to begin a German Christian colony in Chile in 1961. In this docuseries, each sufferers and experts in the end talk out.

Even those still involved who have kept the cult alive today are incorporated on this docuseries that asks how some distance other folks will cross to please God. It won't have got as much consideration as any other Netflix cult documentaries, however this one is definitely worth a watch.

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